Saturday in Nogaro Part 3 - Victory for Lacko in Race 2

21. June 2014Nogaro - It was now even hotter, over 35°, and everybody was dying to get it over with, and for the evening’s barbecue to start. And there was World Cup football on TV to look forward to as well. Polesitter Major took the lead into the first corner, the rest of the pack hot on his heels. Were we in for a repeat of the events of 2013, when the Hungarian teen took his first ETRC win in the same race last year?
Unfortunately not, because Major lost his lead to Lacko in the third lap. A few seconds earlier there had been a spectacular crash in midfield when the Renaults of the two Josés – Rodrigues and Teodosio – went for each other in the hairpin bend at the end of the long back straight and ended up shunting Javier Mariezcurrena’s Lion MAN into the tyre barrier and bringing down the red flags. The race was restarted in the order in which the trucks had crossed the finish line before the interruption, and so Major was once again in pole. But this time he lost the lead to Lacko right at the start, and continued to lose ground, first to Hahn, and then to Reinert and Bösiger, only to finish the race way back in fifth. Shortly before the chequered flag Bösiger overtook Reinert to finish on the podium. Major was followed across the line by teammate Kiss, ahead of Janiec and Albacete. The Spaniard had run wide onto the grass and lost quite a lot of ground. Halm and Vojtíšek finished in ninth and 10th respectively.
If a race is restarted after the second lap, the results of the two part-races are considered separately and the drivers’ elapsed times added up. This was a time-consuming endeavour in itself, but the race commission also wanted to examine several replays before it announced the final result.
Bösiger was given a 30-second penalty because he’d cut a corner while overtaking Reinert. This dropped the Swiss to 11th, out of the points. Reinert was promoted to third on the podium, and all the other drivers behind him moved up a place. Janiec and Albacete traded places after their respective times had been added, and José Rodrigues moved into 10th.
There was no prizegiving for the teams today; this will happen tomorrow morning.

Impressions: